Monday, April 25, 2011

Gardening – More Than Just Plants

Local red tape seems to be getting in the way of school children caring for, harvesting, and enjoying a school vegetable garden. Nutty. Some local schools have the garden set up but are blocked from eating what they grow. The local paper had an article on Sunday delving into the details. When my garden gnomes were in middle school, their science classrooms looked out onto a garden with a greenhouse. The entire garden area was big but unattended. It was a shame. I believe the garden continues to decay but I’m looking into the matter.

What a shame that free meals of junk are readily available to munchkins of all ages – some three times a day, yet they cannot eat a healthy carrot grown in carrot country. What a shame.

They won’t know how a juicy summer plum forms as it hides in the shelter of a canopy of green leaves.

Plum - Santa Rosa

Or how a juicy ripe strawberry can also be enjoyed by the birds that hunt the bugs that also love the juicy ripe strawberries. (Can you find the ravaged berry?)

Strawberries – Sweet Pinky

Or how a juicy peach grows from a hard fuzzy weird looking thing that points straight up from the tree branch.

Peach – O’Henry

The deteriorating middle school garden would be a great site for a weekend garden club to meet. Perhaps the Senior Center a mile to the south could provide some expert gardening volunteers while sharing with the children. I don’t think it’s a matter of money here. It’s a matter of matching up all interested parties to make something good happen again. Honestly. I’ll give each student 2 zucchini seeds each if need be. What a tremendous way to give students lessons in botany, biology, geology, math, art, literature, physical education, and so much more. I’m of the mind set that there would be much less ADHD diagnosis if a child ate right and had the opportunity to burn off a load of steam.

I would like to know if you have gardens at your local schools – most especially if those schools are in California. You thought our State flower was the California Poppy. Wrong. It’s red tape dispensed by the nuttiest group of squirrels ever! Leave your ideas in a comment following this post or comment on the paper’s website. In the meantime, I’m going to check out the California School Garden Network. Is Mrs. Obama in the neighborhood? I may need her help.

Garden Note:

Two varieties of tomatoes have blossoms forming - Tigerella and Santa Clara Canner. They haven’t even been put in the ground!

3 comments:

I just found your blog and read this post, and I must say I'm so absolutely appalled at this "red tape" scenario. What has CA become? I live in Sacramento, CA and I only wish that we had a garden project like this at any of the schools. I would happily volunteer!

This year will be my first attempt at growing my own garden. My main reason for doing so is because I want my family to be more self-sustained. With the rising gas and food prices out here, the only economical thing to do is to grow your own food.

With the budget cuts at our schools, you'd think it would be one more reason to start a school gardening plot. I'm with you...totally confused.